Turning Point - 20/64
Title: Turning Point
Fandom: Torchwood
Pairings: budding Jack/Ianto, references to past Ianto/Lisa
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: If I was the one who owned Torchwood, you think I'd admit it now?
Spoilers: Some information and events from s1,2. NONE for s3.
Summary: In the aftermath of Lisa's death, Ianto is struggling to cope - and new surprises don't help matters much. Can his friends on the team at Torchwood help him carry on?
Author's Note: Sequel to Guilt.
Thanks to: My beta cazmalfoy, angelzbabe1989 for idea bouncing, and morbid_sparks for cheerleading even when she doesn't know what happens.
Previous chapters at master list
Chapter Twenty
“What would you like me to do with her when she gets here?” Ianto’s voice was soft as he made the query.
A little voice in the very back of Jack’s mind, one that was oft ignored, whispered a suggestion; Jack brushed it away and told the little voice that that was highly inappropriate. “She’s carrying a couple of boxes of pizza.” He grinned, despite the fact that Ianto couldn’t see it. “Let her come down deliver it to us.”
He watched as Ianto nodded and went to unlock the front door. “Okay.”
“You’re letting her into the Hub?” Suzie asked, looking up from her worktable.
Jack nodded. “Of course.” He could feel the other three staring at him. “You can’t honestly think that, after all that she’s seen in the last two days, she’s just going to find the Tourist Office and give up?”
“Well, no, but…” Owen started.
“This way, she comes down, we assuage her curiosity… and then I take her out for a nice drink with a tiny dash of Retcon.” Jack shrugged. “Everybody wins.”
“So, she comes down here and we, what?” Owen asked. “Tell her everything? Give her the guided tour?”
Jack nodded. “Well, more or less, yes. But first, I was thinking we do nothing, and let her deliver that pizza. Well, assuming there is actually pizza in the boxes.”
“Nothing?” Suzie said, her eyebrows lifting.
“Nothing,” Jack confirmed. “Well, not nothing nothing, but ‘looking like you’re working’ nothing. She comes down, hands over the pizza… and I’ll figure it out from there.”
“So we just ignore her?” Tosh asked, frowning a little.
Jack grinned madly. “Exactly.” None of them looked too convinced. “Come on, guys. It’ll be fun!”
He could see their shoulders moving in an almost simultaneous sigh as they all indicated their acceptance of the plan.
“She’s almost at the door,” Tosh noted, looking back at the CCTV picture from the Quay.
Jack turned up the sound on the internal feed from the Tourist Office and maximised it to a full screen.
As the young woman - Gwen, he reminded himself - pushed open the door and entered, he realised that Ianto had disappeared. Gwen was also evidently fairly confused at finding herself in what appeared to be an abandoned office.
Ianto reappeared a few seconds later, a fresh cup of coffee in hand - Jack knew he kept a kettle and a small cafetière in the little storage room along with the variety of leaflets he used to make the Information Office look authentic.
“Oh, hiya. Sorry, I’m late. Someone ordered pizza?”
Jack grinned wryly as Ianto smiled innocently at her. “Who’s it for?”
“I think it’s…a Mr Harkness.” Gwen Cooper, whatever else she was, wasn’t the best actress in the world, Jack noted.
Ianto nodded, and with a couple of smooth button presses, the hidden doorway to the Hub was opened.
Gwen looked around, clutching the pizza boxes and looking hesitant.
“Don’t keep them waiting.” Ianto encouraged her through the doors, and even after she disappeared from the coverage of the CCTV camera, Jack could see Ianto urging her on.
“Alright, everyone,” he called out as he flipped off the monitor, “find something to do!”
Pulling out the paperwork he’d actually been working on earlier that evening, he concentrated on looking studious and tried to think up something witty to say when Gwen finally handed over the pizza.
The alarm and flashing lights as the cog door and the gates automatically closed over behind her alerted him to the fact that their curious young copper was now ‘in the building’, as they said.
Glancing up carefully, without raising his head, he could see her standing stock still next to the doors, looking around in wonder while the rest of his team worked on around her. After a very long moment, she finally climbed the short flight of steps up to the office area and headed towards him.
There was a muffled snort from somewhere around Owen and Tosh’s desks. The snort was followed by a badly disguised giggle, and then an even louder snort.
“I can’t do this! I’m sorry!” Owen called, swivelling on his chair and leaning back. “I’m rubbish, I give up!”
Tosh giggled aloud and turned to point accusingly at Owen. “He set me off!” Owen glared heatlessly at her, only serving to make her giggle again.
Suzie stood up and threw her hands in the air as she turned to them. “Well that lasted all of nought point two seconds!”
“I’m sorry!” Owen repeated.
Jack threw his pen down and shook his head, standing up to walk around his desk. “Come on, she was going to come over and say, ‘Here’s your pizza,’ and then I would have said, ‘All right, how much?’ and then she makes something up and says, ‘Oh, twenty quid,’ or whatever, and then, well, I don’t know what I would have said. I was working on a punch line. I’d have got there. And it would’ve been good.”
Gwen just blinked at them as Suzie started over towards them. “I… uh… here’s your pizza. I think I should probably go.”
Jack fixed her with a look. “I think we’ve gone way past that point, don’t you?”
“You must be freezing,” Suzie said, coming up behind her. “You were out there walking around for what, two hours? Three?”
“You could see me?” Gwen said, nervously. “You’ve been watching me?”
“Ever since you followed us back this afternoon and started wandering around the water tower, yes,” Suzie replied.
“That man at the hospital, that porter,” Gwen started, her eyes flicking between them. “What happened to him? I didn’t imagine that, did I? He was attacked.”
“He’s dead,” Jack told her bluntly.
She shook her head. “But no one’s gone missing. We checked.”
“We took the body, retrospectively changed the work rota, planted a witness statement that says he left the hospital, thus giving him an alibi for the next forty-eight hours, so when he’s pulled from the docks next Monday, he’s only been missing for three days,” Tosh said matter-of-factly.
Gwen stared. “He was murdered, and you covered it up.”
Tosh nodded. “It’s part of my job.”
Gwen looked more than a little bit disturbed by this fact. “And what about that other man, John Tucker, in the alley last night. I saw you there, I saw you…”
Jack took a step forward. “And what did you see.”
“You revived him.”
Jack shook his head. Clearly, her brain was still trying too hard to fit things into something she could understand, something that didn’t require accepting the madness that was Torchwood. “No. What did you see?”
“You resuscitated him.”
He took another step forward. That was even worse.
“No.” He spoke slowly, clearly enunciating each word separately. “What. Did. You. See?”
“You… brought him back to life.”
He nodded and allowed himself to smile just a little. “Yeah.”
She stared up at him, wide-eyed. “Who are you?”
“Torchwood,” he smirked.
“But what’s Torchwood?”
He swept an arm around behind him. “This is Torchwood, all around you. We’re Torchwood.”
“And what about me?” she asked, nerves starting to show through again. “What are you… you can’t do anything to me. I’m police constable Gwen Cooper, you… can’t do anything.”
Jack chewed on his lip as he regarded the young woman, still gripping the pizza boxes, and wondered if she really believed they would just get rid of her and cover it up, just because she’d discovered them. Although, he had to admit, back in the very early days - long, long before she’d been born - she would have been right.
“Right then, PC Cooper, come and see.”
“Come see what?”
“You saw the murder, come see the murderer.”
Turning around, Jack strode off towards the cells. There was a scream a few seconds later as Myfanwy dove down to investigate their visitor, and he could just make out Tosh’s flat assertion that yes, she was actually a pterodactyl.
“Come on!” he yelled back. “And the rest of you, don’t eat all the pizza!”
Chapter Twenty-One
Comments and concrit are loved!
Fandom: Torchwood
Pairings: budding Jack/Ianto, references to past Ianto/Lisa
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: If I was the one who owned Torchwood, you think I'd admit it now?
Spoilers: Some information and events from s1,2. NONE for s3.
Summary: In the aftermath of Lisa's death, Ianto is struggling to cope - and new surprises don't help matters much. Can his friends on the team at Torchwood help him carry on?
Author's Note: Sequel to Guilt.
Thanks to: My beta cazmalfoy, angelzbabe1989 for idea bouncing, and morbid_sparks for cheerleading even when she doesn't know what happens.
Previous chapters at master list
Chapter Twenty
“What would you like me to do with her when she gets here?” Ianto’s voice was soft as he made the query.
A little voice in the very back of Jack’s mind, one that was oft ignored, whispered a suggestion; Jack brushed it away and told the little voice that that was highly inappropriate. “She’s carrying a couple of boxes of pizza.” He grinned, despite the fact that Ianto couldn’t see it. “Let her come down deliver it to us.”
He watched as Ianto nodded and went to unlock the front door. “Okay.”
“You’re letting her into the Hub?” Suzie asked, looking up from her worktable.
Jack nodded. “Of course.” He could feel the other three staring at him. “You can’t honestly think that, after all that she’s seen in the last two days, she’s just going to find the Tourist Office and give up?”
“Well, no, but…” Owen started.
“This way, she comes down, we assuage her curiosity… and then I take her out for a nice drink with a tiny dash of Retcon.” Jack shrugged. “Everybody wins.”
“So, she comes down here and we, what?” Owen asked. “Tell her everything? Give her the guided tour?”
Jack nodded. “Well, more or less, yes. But first, I was thinking we do nothing, and let her deliver that pizza. Well, assuming there is actually pizza in the boxes.”
“Nothing?” Suzie said, her eyebrows lifting.
“Nothing,” Jack confirmed. “Well, not nothing nothing, but ‘looking like you’re working’ nothing. She comes down, hands over the pizza… and I’ll figure it out from there.”
“So we just ignore her?” Tosh asked, frowning a little.
Jack grinned madly. “Exactly.” None of them looked too convinced. “Come on, guys. It’ll be fun!”
He could see their shoulders moving in an almost simultaneous sigh as they all indicated their acceptance of the plan.
“She’s almost at the door,” Tosh noted, looking back at the CCTV picture from the Quay.
Jack turned up the sound on the internal feed from the Tourist Office and maximised it to a full screen.
As the young woman - Gwen, he reminded himself - pushed open the door and entered, he realised that Ianto had disappeared. Gwen was also evidently fairly confused at finding herself in what appeared to be an abandoned office.
Ianto reappeared a few seconds later, a fresh cup of coffee in hand - Jack knew he kept a kettle and a small cafetière in the little storage room along with the variety of leaflets he used to make the Information Office look authentic.
“Oh, hiya. Sorry, I’m late. Someone ordered pizza?”
Jack grinned wryly as Ianto smiled innocently at her. “Who’s it for?”
“I think it’s…a Mr Harkness.” Gwen Cooper, whatever else she was, wasn’t the best actress in the world, Jack noted.
Ianto nodded, and with a couple of smooth button presses, the hidden doorway to the Hub was opened.
Gwen looked around, clutching the pizza boxes and looking hesitant.
“Don’t keep them waiting.” Ianto encouraged her through the doors, and even after she disappeared from the coverage of the CCTV camera, Jack could see Ianto urging her on.
“Alright, everyone,” he called out as he flipped off the monitor, “find something to do!”
Pulling out the paperwork he’d actually been working on earlier that evening, he concentrated on looking studious and tried to think up something witty to say when Gwen finally handed over the pizza.
The alarm and flashing lights as the cog door and the gates automatically closed over behind her alerted him to the fact that their curious young copper was now ‘in the building’, as they said.
Glancing up carefully, without raising his head, he could see her standing stock still next to the doors, looking around in wonder while the rest of his team worked on around her. After a very long moment, she finally climbed the short flight of steps up to the office area and headed towards him.
There was a muffled snort from somewhere around Owen and Tosh’s desks. The snort was followed by a badly disguised giggle, and then an even louder snort.
“I can’t do this! I’m sorry!” Owen called, swivelling on his chair and leaning back. “I’m rubbish, I give up!”
Tosh giggled aloud and turned to point accusingly at Owen. “He set me off!” Owen glared heatlessly at her, only serving to make her giggle again.
Suzie stood up and threw her hands in the air as she turned to them. “Well that lasted all of nought point two seconds!”
“I’m sorry!” Owen repeated.
Jack threw his pen down and shook his head, standing up to walk around his desk. “Come on, she was going to come over and say, ‘Here’s your pizza,’ and then I would have said, ‘All right, how much?’ and then she makes something up and says, ‘Oh, twenty quid,’ or whatever, and then, well, I don’t know what I would have said. I was working on a punch line. I’d have got there. And it would’ve been good.”
Gwen just blinked at them as Suzie started over towards them. “I… uh… here’s your pizza. I think I should probably go.”
Jack fixed her with a look. “I think we’ve gone way past that point, don’t you?”
“You must be freezing,” Suzie said, coming up behind her. “You were out there walking around for what, two hours? Three?”
“You could see me?” Gwen said, nervously. “You’ve been watching me?”
“Ever since you followed us back this afternoon and started wandering around the water tower, yes,” Suzie replied.
“That man at the hospital, that porter,” Gwen started, her eyes flicking between them. “What happened to him? I didn’t imagine that, did I? He was attacked.”
“He’s dead,” Jack told her bluntly.
She shook her head. “But no one’s gone missing. We checked.”
“We took the body, retrospectively changed the work rota, planted a witness statement that says he left the hospital, thus giving him an alibi for the next forty-eight hours, so when he’s pulled from the docks next Monday, he’s only been missing for three days,” Tosh said matter-of-factly.
Gwen stared. “He was murdered, and you covered it up.”
Tosh nodded. “It’s part of my job.”
Gwen looked more than a little bit disturbed by this fact. “And what about that other man, John Tucker, in the alley last night. I saw you there, I saw you…”
Jack took a step forward. “And what did you see.”
“You revived him.”
Jack shook his head. Clearly, her brain was still trying too hard to fit things into something she could understand, something that didn’t require accepting the madness that was Torchwood. “No. What did you see?”
“You resuscitated him.”
He took another step forward. That was even worse.
“No.” He spoke slowly, clearly enunciating each word separately. “What. Did. You. See?”
“You… brought him back to life.”
He nodded and allowed himself to smile just a little. “Yeah.”
She stared up at him, wide-eyed. “Who are you?”
“Torchwood,” he smirked.
“But what’s Torchwood?”
He swept an arm around behind him. “This is Torchwood, all around you. We’re Torchwood.”
“And what about me?” she asked, nerves starting to show through again. “What are you… you can’t do anything to me. I’m police constable Gwen Cooper, you… can’t do anything.”
Jack chewed on his lip as he regarded the young woman, still gripping the pizza boxes, and wondered if she really believed they would just get rid of her and cover it up, just because she’d discovered them. Although, he had to admit, back in the very early days - long, long before she’d been born - she would have been right.
“Right then, PC Cooper, come and see.”
“Come see what?”
“You saw the murder, come see the murderer.”
Turning around, Jack strode off towards the cells. There was a scream a few seconds later as Myfanwy dove down to investigate their visitor, and he could just make out Tosh’s flat assertion that yes, she was actually a pterodactyl.
“Come on!” he yelled back. “And the rest of you, don’t eat all the pizza!”
Chapter Twenty-One
Comments and concrit are loved!